1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a novel multicomponent cartridge, especially a two-component cartridge.
2. Prior Art
Such cartridges are used, e.g., for preserving and storing multicomponent adhesives, curing sealants, resins, or the like. The components are first mixed when squeezed out of the cartridge into a separate static mixer, which is set on the cartridge. Typical multicomponent cartridges have separate material receptacles and a material outlet with a seal that can be removed before use. This seal is removed first before emptying the cartridge and can be configured, e.g., as a screw cap, a tear-off seal, or the like. The material receptacles for such cartridges lie either side by side (side-by-side cartridge) or are configured as coaxial tubes (coaxial cartridge). In either embodiment, the material outlet can be configured as a coaxial outlet. In this way, the first component is discharged through a central tube and the other component is discharged through an annular space arranged around the central tube. Such coaxial outlets are sealed with caps, which have special sealing elements. The sealing elements should prevent the components stored in the cartridge from leaking during storage or from reacting with each other due to premature contact. Thus, a seal against the outside and a seal against the inside should be realized.
Cartridges are already known in which the seal between the cap and a coaxial outlet is realized by a planar arrangement of an inner and/or outer tube of the coaxial outlet inside of suitable annular grooves of the cap or by a wedge configuration. Here, the seal is realized on the end or on the side as a surface seal, on the side by a wedge configuration, or by a combination of these variants. FIG. 6 shows such seals. In the configuration shown in the sketch on the left of FIG. 6, the seal is realized on the end and/or on the side by means of a surface seal. The sketch on the right of FIG. 6 shows a wedge configuration, and the center drawing shows a combination of wedge and end-side sealing. One problem of such seals is that the wedge seal and the end-side seal are active only in a predetermined axial position. As soon as the cap is slightly opened, the sealing effect can no longer be guaranteed. Therefore, as a rule, the cap must be screwed down tightly to also exert sufficient force on the sealing position. The force of the surface seal is also distributed over a larger surface, so that an additional, high force for sealing the cap must be applied. The surface seal must also take into account capillary effects, and thus conditional loss of the sealing function. Consequently, the cap with the conventional sealing elements must be screwed down with much force for achieving the desired sealing effect, such that an additional auxiliary tool is sometimes necessary to open the cartridge. It has also been shown that loss of sealing function occurs again and again in the known cartridges, which can lead to leakage of the components and to blockage of the outlets due to reaction of the components.
There are already caps for cartridges with coaxial outlet, for which the seal is realized by an additional elastomer insert. However, this solution is expensive because an additional elastomer part must be produced and mounted in the cap or it must be produced using complicated 2K plastic injection technology.